Best Paid Firewall?

Any of the paid versions of ZA come with the OSFirewall Feature. The OSFirewall monitors processes in the same way as Process Guard etc does. When it warns you of suspicious or dangerous activity, you have the option of allowing or terminating the process. In addition from ZA's program list, you have the option of also terminating any running programs at your own will.

If you are looking for the best in protecting your computer , Outpost PRO and Kerio PAID are the best of the bunch . LnS is very good as well . ZAP still has a way to go . They offer alot like 3 layer defense but , only words . Still needs maturity in their newest offerings .

If you are looking for the best in protecting your computer , Outpost PRO and Kerio PAID are the best of the bunch . LnS is very good as well . ZAP still has a way to go . They offer alot like 3 layer defense but , only words . Still needs maturity in their newest offerings .

Click to expand...

agreed! although ZA can offer quite the good protection it lacks stability (used PRO before on another computer). i personally like kerio but we have yet to see what sunbelt will do to it! outpost pro is a nice selection too but i really don't know much about it (cept its free version isnt that good). LnS paid is more of a complex program for setting rules etc. i'd rather use kerio, za, or outpost instead of that if you want something with less popups and easy setup

If you are looking for the best in protecting your computer , Outpost PRO and Kerio PAID are the best of the bunch . LnS is very good as well . ZAP still has a way to go . They offer alot like 3 layer defense but , only words . Still needs maturity in their newest offerings .

Click to expand...

Long way to go where? It's already one of the safest firewalls out there, especially the current version with it's OS level of security. If you are refering to bugs I would understand the maturity comment, although the latest build seems to have fixed most of the big issues.

I actually have a paid sub to Outpost, ZA Pro and Kerio at the moment and I prefer ZA over the other 2. They are all pretty much equal on protection but I find that ZA gives me better performance, out of the 3. I grabbed Kerio thinking it would be good for my Laptop but it makes my browsing a bit sluggish(ad blocking is part of the equation as that is a need for me). Outpost also does this and with my somewhat slow laptop, things like slowdowns are exaggerated to an annoying point.

I've currently switched to ZA and am trying the free version. The paid version seems to interfere somehow with AVAST and I like it and may switch to the Pro if I can figure out what the problem with AVAST is. Currently digging through the threads on the AVAST forum for the answer that I remember seeing.

Outpost, which I tried a while back was okay, but Lord in Heaven above I'm still trying to rid myself of leftover files from when I removed it. I've still got something called wl_hook.dll and it won't let me delete it no matter what I do or run. As a result, I've got Agnitum stuck in my program files and can't get rid of the folder, and all because of that .dll. I keep thinking everything else is gone, and whenever I run my registry cleaner, it finds more. This cured me from ever using Outpost. I'm sure this is just my computer, since I haven't seen any complaints from others about this situation.

I prefer Outpost Pro, but it has a BIG problem for me:
it cannot stop a process started by another process...
it can only stop hidden processes...

Click to expand...

Most would argue that such a function is outside the remit of a firewall, whose focus should be on controlling network access. However there is other software you can use to cover this area (Tiny Firewall can do it, but it's not the easiest thing to configure....) - specifically System Safety Monitor (currently free while in beta) which does complement Outpost very well. AppDefend as mentioned above would be another choice though I don't know if it offers as fine a level of control (allowing program A to run B while blocking C from doing so) as SSM.

I agree that Tiny is a nice firewall too. It is the best firewall for me, and I love it. However, this is definitely not a good time for a new user to try it though. Tiny's user manual is next to useless, and technical support from Tiny does not exist. Previously, we could still seek answers from Tiny's forum. But now, almost all of the valueable posts are lost because of some server problem at Tiny. So new users almost have to solve all the problems by themselves at this time, which makes the task of configuring Tiny almost a mission impossible for new users.

I agree that Tiny is a nice firewall too. It is the best firewall for me, and I love it. However, this is definitely not a good time for a new user to try it though. Tiny's user manual is next to useless, and technical support from Tiny does not exist. Previously, we could still seek answers from Tiny's forum. But now, almost all of the valueable posts are lost because of some server problem at Tiny. So new users almost have to solve all the problems by themselves at this time, which makes the task of configuring Tiny almost a mission impossible for new users.

Click to expand...

Yes, too bad for this HDD crash. One of the developpers just revisited the site and confirmed this ... unfortunately they did not have a recent backup of the forum posts. The guy mentioned that TF2005 is not dead and that they are working really hard on the next release... but don't expect it to be available in the next weeks. New version is not stable enough.

And yes TF2005 is a complex thing... as it includes Firewall, IDS/IPS, sandboxing and more. Best is to concentrate on one feature (like Firewall), sort it out and once mastered move on to the next feature. Just like one would do with seperate products. A good starting point is a rules based firewall like Kerio 2.1.5. And of course... senior members are still around on the Tinysoftware support forum.

Tiny2005 for me too but if I could choose from your list I would go for Zonealarm without!! the antivirus (Pro) hence the nice program control / "pg like" features.

Click to expand...

Never tried Tiny, but then I'm no expert to start with it.
ZoneAlarm is a very nice firewall, pity it didn't behave on my system.
Liked the GUI though.

Second on the list is Outpost Pro with blockpost plugin

Click to expand...

Yes, that's definitely a very good firewall and not so difficult to learn how to use it.

free firewalls, I would go for Kerio.

Click to expand...

FilseClab was one I tried out and it stealthed all my ports.
Pity upgrades aren't available.

Kerio 4 is very easy to use and provides good protection. What I liked was the PDF I downloaded, which provides good info about it.
All my ports stealthed at GRC without doing anything. Just runs fine out of the box.

You could use it free of course, but for the price of $14.95 until end of March, I really couldn't resist that offer.
Try them out and find what runs best on your system and also doesn't give you problems with your hardware/software.

Yes, too bad for this HDD crash. One of the developpers just revisited the site and confirmed this ... unfortunately they did not have a recent backup of the forum posts. The guy mentioned that TF2005 is not dead and that they are working really hard on the next release... but don't expect it to be available in the next weeks. New version is not stable enough.

Click to expand...

I am so happy to know that Tiny is not dead yet. After such long time hard working on TF2005 in silence, I really hope that the upcoming release will bring us some good surprises.

I am so happy to know that Tiny is not dead yet. After such long time hard working on TF2005 in silence, I really hope that the upcoming release will bring us some good surprises.

Click to expand...

Let's hope so! I am rather worried about this take over of CA. When I think about this all, at the end it's all about the $$$ and loyal customer or not ... secure out of the box or not (I remember this discussion a while ago at their forums to secure Tiny out of the box) but now .... I admit Tiny is not the easiest around but hey .. the things it offers is not seen yet! miles ahead of the rest ..

In fact a lot of this HIPS players at the moment have reverse engineered Tiny2005! that is something I believe and that has a lot to say about this FireWall All In One!

never had a better Firewall, never browsed sooooo fast with Tiny compared to others.

Why was this thread turned into a Tiny thread ? The question had absolutely NOTHING to do with Tiny .
Betweem threse:
Outpost Pro 3.0
Kerio
Zone Labs
Look'n'Stop
This was the original . How about something constructive to help the person out that started this thread ?

But the title of this thread.. Best Paid Fireall , I and reading throurgh his post he looks for functions that fit the profile of TF2005 almost perfectly. So maybe they never heard or TF2005 before and maybe it could be his holy grail. ;-).

btw I used all of them: Outpost Pro 3.0, Kerio, Zone Labs, Look'n'Stop and I dumped them all for TF2005 because non of them gave me what I was looking for.

Or maybe the title of the thread could have been.... Best Paid Firewall of the 4? ;-)

maybe the title of the thread could have been.... Best Paid Firewall of the 4? ;-)

Click to expand...

Agree. At the meantime, I do not think that a question like 'best paid/free firewall' makes much sense. If a best firewall ever exists in the world, it would be the only one left on the market now. All the various firewalls are there for reasons. Everyone can find a best firewall, but there is just no firewall best for everyone.

Among the four firewall mentioned by OP, I have tried all of them except Look 'n' Stop. They all have very unique features and are all very good. IMHO, it all depends on what kind of feature, UI, or whatever OP is looking for. So a better question may be 'I need ... feature/UI/resource, which firewall shoud be good for me?'

At the risk of ridicule for not restricting myself to one of the original 3 or 4, I would suggest consideration of NetOp Desktop Firewall 3.0 (Danware). It, in addition to "stealthing" all ports out of the box, includes an airtight program lockdown capability by allowing one to put all executables into a database and then by using the options tab, only allow the programs/executables to execute according to your assigned restrictions. Since the firewall is driver centric and loads before any other programs, and remains active even when the tray/interface is off, the odds of any malware activating, etc., is slim to none. There is a free trial available, but the firewall is not cheap (roughly $55-75 for single user desktop version).

IMHO Kerio has a really good balance of application based rules and packet filter based rules that allows the product to cater for both novices and "experts". The creation of rules is not much different from other products - although they all have their subtle differences, often it's the GUI that's different rather than the rule content.